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The AIH Transcript for September 9, 2020

Hosts: Carol Off and Chris Howden

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello. I'm Carol Off.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

CH: Tonight:

CO: Hell fire. A devastating blaze at the Moria refugee camp in Greece has left thousands without food or a place to go -- and an aid worker tells us the situation could not get any worse.

CH: No room. They fled the creek fire in California on the weekend, and now our guest says he has no idea where he and his family will sleep tonight because the hotels are too full and too expensive.

CO: It's not working. A Toronto academic joins hundreds of others in a scholars strike in support of Black Lives Matter and tells us what she and her colleagues across the continent are hoping to accomplish.

CH: Lights, camera, reaction. The creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag reflects on the academy's new diversity standards for best picture contenders and whether they'll make a difference or just make people mad.

CO: Open book. Ann Cleeves believes in the power of reading as a remedy because books help heal her own hurt, which is why the British crime writer is financing two full-time "bibliotherapists" in a part of England with a storied past.

CH: And there's a sucker made every minute. A treasure hunt claims to offer contestants the chance to win their very own candy factory, but it's unclear what really happens when the sugar rush wears off. As It Happens. The Wednesday Edition. Radio that's not sure this is a bon bonafide offer.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Moria fire

Moria fire

Guest: Annie Petros

[SOUNDCLIP: Crackling sound]

CH: The sound of the fires that tore through a refugee camp in Greece overnight. The fires almost completely razed the overcrowded Moria camp on Lesbos. Now about 13,000 people have no shelter. As asylum seekers fled the camps, some of them injured, police blocked the roads to prevent them from entering towns nearby. A fresh blaze started at Moria today as evening fell in Greece. And these disasters hit amid a COVID-19 outbreak at the camp. Annie Petros works on the island with the NGO Becky's Bathhouse. We reached her in Mytilene, Greece, not far from the camp.

CO: Annie can you describe these fires that, well, destroyed Moria overnight?

ANNIE PETROS: Yes Multiple fire started. They continued until the morning and there was a new fire this evening that happened around 6:30 or 7 p.m.. There is no concrete evidence on how the fire started or how many people have been injured or how many people have died. Thousands of people are now homeless waiting in the streets next to the markets. They've been sleeping there since last night without food, water or shelter. They need as much support as they can get.

CO: At what point did you become aware and actually started heading to the camp to see what you could do?

AP: I became aware around 2:00 in the morning, maybe a little earlier, 1:45.

CO: What did you try to do?

AP: So we have a van. We realize that the only thing we could do is to help the people get to Mytilene, thIS city. So myself and another volunteer, her name is Osian, we're both 23, by the way. And we were the ones that responded to this. So we got in our van and we drove as close to the camp as we could get. And everyone was coming through the streets of the village. It was thousands of people in a constant stream carrying their children, carrying their belongings in garbage bags and anything that they could have, people with on crutches, people on wheelchairs. It was such a steady stream of people. And it was silent. The trauma and the fear was so present in the air. It was honestly a nightmare.

CO: Just describe what that's like. They're silent because they're traumatized?

AP: Yeah. Everyone was just very clearly putting one foot in front of the other and just focusing on getting as far away from the camp as possible because the camp was burning. We could see the flames, we could smell the fire, could smell the burning garbage. They were all walking towards Mytilini because they had nowhere else to go.

CO: We've done a number of stories and had people describe the conditions in that camp that is now destroyed. And it's just disgusting places, isn't it? It's foul. It's makeshift homes made out of bits of plastic, which I'm sure was burning as well and that was part of the smell. The whole place is just awful. But this was home to these people who are now on the road. This is all they had, right?

AP: Yeah. The camp was horrible. It literally was hell on earth. People cooking and selling things, making their chanties out of every possible scrap material they could get which, of course, really fed the fire. It's also been really hot here. And yesterday and today, it was incredibly windy. So those fires, they had a lot of fuel and a lot of power to get out of hand.

CO: What were you able to do to help those that you encountered?

AP: Well, when we got there, we had no difficulty finding people that needed to get in the van. We instantly found pregnant women, a very elderly woman who couldn't really walk. And two young boys, probably no older than 17, very very injured. We loaded the van. We left. We immediately were stopped at a police barricade. They had barricaded off the roads into the city. It was a night of talking to the police, begging them to get us through. At one point, a police officer actually called an ambulance for the men in the vehicle who really needed to get to the hospital. And the dispatchers of the ambulance said, no, they won't come, even though the police officer himself was the one that called. Instead, we ended up driving from barricade to barricade.

CO: When you were taking looking for other routes, going through back roads, trying to get these people to the city, who did you encounter? You encountered people who were hostile to these migrants, is that right?

AP: We mainly encountered refugees walking away from the camp and just trying to get somewhere. Lots of police. And at one point we did see a group of very aggressive anti-migrants, I would call them fascists. Luckily, when we saw them, there was police officers already there and they stopped us. And we could see through the officers that there was a group of them behind. And the officers told us, you can't come through here, it's not safe for you. So instead, we turned around and found a different route.

CO: The people you were able to help, you got some of them out. When you left, the last time you were there on the road and as you mentioned, another fire has started -- what are people doing at this point? What are those migrants who had to flee the camp -- where are they and what are they doing?

AP: So right now, the remaining asylum seekers have been displaced. They will be housed in different army bases around Lesvos through a timeline that has not yet been decided. So at the moment, they are on the street, on the road. NGOs have been working hard all day trying to set up tents and shelter for people. They're just on the side of the road with really no support.

CO: Annie I know that you and so many others have been trying so hard to help these people, and how impossible it seems to change what's going on there. But how exasperating is it to see what happened last night for you?

AP: For me, the biggest question is: Why is this my job? Why am I here doing this? As I said, I'm 23. It shouldn't be people who care that are the ones here. The governments aren't here. The U.N. isn't here. The European Union isn't here. The Canadian government is not here. However, we do have NATO ships in the Mediterranean. It is very exhausting. It doesn't feel fair for anyone. And it feels like here the world is exploding. But I know that back home in Canada, in my home city of Calgary, no one really knows what's going on. And if they do, they don't really understand. And it really would be an easy situation, an easy fix, Canada and all the other governments have to come and just take a big group of people and resettle them in our countries. It does feel like, up until this point, the world hasn't been paying attention. But I really hope that if any good comes from this disaster that is unfolding right now, it's that it can't get any worse. It has to get better.

CO: The Greek government is blaming the migrants themselves. The prime minister says that they believe the fire was started by those who were protesting lockdowns. A number of the people in the camp have been diagnosed with COVID. What would you make of that? Do you think that is possible, that as you say, there was an attempt to send a message to the world that this can't go on?

AP: No, I wouldn't say that. I don't think that there's any actual facts behind the statements being made. It hasn't been confirmed yet. No one really knows what happened, and I really don't think that that would be the whole truth.

CO: You're a Canadian.

AP: Yeah, I'm born and raised in Calgary, Alberta.

CO: And how did you end up living in Lesbos?

AP: Well, I guess my grandpa immigrated from Greece. So for me, fighting for the right for people to migrate and leave when they feel that they need to leave -- I'm fighting for my own life because if we're not allowed to cross borders and if we're not allowed to leave the places that we were born to find a better life, whether that's escaping war, violence, then I wouldn't be alive. So for me, it was very personal. I needed to come to fight for my own livelihood, to fight for the right to move. Because if you don't have that right, most of Canada wouldn't exist. It wouldn't be what it is today.

CO: Annie I'm glad you're there for people. It always has sounded so horrible now, so much worse. And I appreciate what you and the others are doing to help them. Thank you so much for speaking with us tonight.

AP: Thank you.

CH: Annie Petros is the head co-ordinator of the NGO Becky's Bathhouse. She was in Mytilene, Greece, not far from the Moria refugee camp.

[Music]

Academy Best Picture

Guest: April Reign

CH: Oscars somewhat less white. That's the idea behind new diversity and inclusion standards announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday. Starting in 2024, films vying for the Best Picture crown will officially have to be diverse, sort of. More accurately, they'll have to fulfill two out of four requirements around representation on and off screen. It's all a bit confusing, but it's something. And for April Reign, it's been a long time coming. Ms. Reign is a public speaker and consultant who created the viral #OscarsSoWhite hashtag five years ago. We reached her today in Washington, D.C.

CO: April, I'm wondering how big a change this actually is, this decision by the Academy. Are you doing victory laps around your living room?

APRIL REIGN: Oh, absolutely not. There is still so much more work to be done. And we've already seen when we put older movies into the new rubric that the Academy has announced that there are definite significant loopholes with respect to diversity and inclusion, both in front of and behind the camera. So there's much more work to be done.

CO: Okay. What actually works? In this criteria, there's a lot there and it's hard to sum up. I've been reading through the various categories. What do you think actually is good and workable in these new criteria?

AR: Well, I think that it's good that the Academy is finally, after over 90 years, thinking about issues of inclusion and equity, both in front of and behind the camera. Those are all good things, but they are things that the Academy should have been doing long before #OscarsSoWhite even because what the data shows is that the more diverse a project is, both in front of and behind the camera, the more money it makes. So Hollywood is truly leaving money on the table when they do not think about how they can make their project more inclusive, more equitable, both in front of and behind the camera.

CO: What do you say to those who are criticizing these efforts? I'm thinking of people like Kirstie Alley who said that this approach is, this is a quote, "dictatorial" "anti-artist" -- "it has nothing do with art. It's politics." What do you say to that?

AR: Well, it's clearly not true. You know, first of all, Kirstie Alley has not made films that would even qualify for Best Picture Oscar nominations. And so this is an elective thing that studios can do. If you don't want your -- you know, sometimes when studios make films, they know [chuckles] when they make the film that this is not going to be an Oscar contender. So this is a small category of films that we're talking about. And again, it is voluntary. But I don't see the issue, especially when women are in the forefront of some of these categories -- why Kirstie wouldn't be championing the opportunity to work on Best Picture Oscar contenders and have more opportunities than she may currently have.

CO: Okay. Also, you know, I was just thinking about how, it was for different reasons, but in Canada over the decades, there have been these kinds of criteria established because we determined that there are too many movies, Hollywood movies, being made and that we wanted to have Canadian movies. And so there were these kinds of rules about just ticking off these boxes of you had Canadian representation in various categories and it was actually possible to tick off the boxes and to qualify and really not be a story about Canada at all, not represent new ideas or new stories. They were just also Hollywood knockoffs. Are you concerned that in the end that even if they should qualify, they're not telling different stories?

AR: Absolutely. So an example of that would be the movie, the Green Book, which was supposed to be a movie about Dr. Shirley, who was a piano virtuoso and spent one very long summer travelling the south and in sort of opening the minds of people who may have been bigoted or discriminated against him. And yet the final product that we got was really told through the eyes of his chauffeur, who was a white man. And we know that because it was co-written by the actual chauffeur's son. And in fact, the family, Dr. Shirley's family, came out opposed to the film, despite the fact that not only was Mahershala Ali one of the stars, but he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in this film. And so that is an easy example about how there are enough loopholes within this new Academy policy that we still will not see what I think needs to happen, which is an emphasis on who is telling the story and whose story is being told.

CO: And so, how do you do that? How do you actually change this to actually have it so that these films are not being made through a White lens?

AR: I think the issue has always been the people who green-light the films: the studio heads. And by and large, they are White men. And they want to see what they are comfortable with. This is why we get a film about war, you know, at the beginning of every Oscar season in November-December, because White men love to blow things up I guess, I'm not sure. But, you know, the truth is what we see and what it actually encourages me is that more actors and actresses and others within the entertainment industry are taking matters into their own hands. A great example of this is Michael B. Jordan, who has Outlier Productions, and he has been an early advocate of the inclusion rider, which you may remember Frances McDormand mentioned on the Oscar stage a few years ago. And that's where you think about how you can be normalized -- you know, that's the word we use, normalize inclusion and equity at every step of the process. And to be clear, the onus should not just be on marginalized communities. We need to have more support from White men, from White women who say, 'You know what? I have a better time on set when the set is more diverse. I love having these stories told to because my children need to learn about all communities, not just my own.' And so I would love to see more of that, more support from those who are not part of the marginalized communities, but still have privilege, still have a platform and can speak out on these issues.

CO: So you're not doing victory laps around your living room. But on a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you that at least they've come this far?

AR: Four perhaps. [Chuckles] You know, all of the onus is not on the Academy, but what we also know is that even today, with all of the changes that they made, the Academy membership is still overwhelmingly the majority is still older White men, and the Academy still does not require its membership to view the films before they vote. So what we're talking about truly is a popularity contest among older White men about what they think the best picture of the year is. And that's not a meritocracy and it's not representative of this country.

CO: April, it's great to speak with you. Thank you.

AR: Thank you. A pleasure.

CH: April Reign is a diversity and inclusion advocate and the creator of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag. We reached her in Washington, D.C..

[Music]

Ann Cleeves: Bibliotherapists

Guest: Ann Cleeves

CH: If you're the kind of person who looks to books for an escape from real world stress, there's a good chance you picked up a novel by Ann Cleeves. Her celebrated Vera Stanhope series features a curmudgeonly detective whose endearing lack of cheer can make you forget your own. Ms. Cleeves says that's no accident. She's long been a proponent of writing and reading as a sort of therapy, largely because it helped her. So now the novelist plans to finance the work of two full-time "bibliotherapists" in northeast England. We reached Ann Cleeves in Whitley Bay, UK.

CO: Ann, first of all, what exactly is a bibliotherapist?

ANN CLEEVES: Well, I don't like that term because it does sound very medical in my idea. People who are just bringing people to reading for pleasure and hoping that that makes them feel much better about themselves.

CO: So feeling better about themselves. Who might benefit -- for want of a better word, who might benefit from a bibliotherapist?

AC: I think that people who are in chronic pain, maybe through rheumatism or arthritis or for other reasons, or people who might have mild depression or anxiety. Just that point, that possibility of losing yourself in a story can work wonders, I think. It certainly worked wonders for me when I've been just a bit low or fed up or miserable. Just finding somewhere else to go in the book is a great solace. And so we're hoping that we'll give people the opportunity to come across books are something that are fun and escapist, if necessary or challenging, if that's what they're looking for.

CO: Bibliotherapist is kind of coach then.

AC: Yeah. And we're doing it through the social prescribing system. I don't know what it's like in Canada, but here doctors, or GPs, can prescribe instead of medication, could prescribe membership of a gym for someone who's a bit overweight. And we're hoping that in our project we'll have reading coaches to make reading accessible to people who have not come across it before or just maybe left it behind a while ago or need some, again, escape or distraction in their lives.

CO: Where did this idea come from for you?

AC: Well, I saw it work a little while ago in a library service in West Yorkshire. But really, for me, it became more personal. My husband was bipolar and undiagnosed, but had a major psychotic episode. He just wasn't himself. He was poorly. He was restless. He made a lot of demands on the whole family, not because he wanted to, but because he was ill. And my escape at that time very much was writing and reading. And I was writing the first Vera novel. I remember it very well. And walking through the countryside with Tim, with my lovely husband, and just losing myself in the story that I was writing, was helping, but also losing myself in the books that I was reading was a terrific help.

CO: It is interesting that Vera Stanhope, this fictitious detective who is well known either from reading or watching her in the series on TV is that's where it came from, is that she was born in midst of you walking with your husband?

AC: Yes, it was. I think I had the idea for the story before that, but fleshing her out definitely happened as we were out walking. And that was 21 years ago, so she's coming of age this year. And so it seemed a good time to be thinking about putting something back, giving something back to the region where she grew up and where I've been made to feel so welcome.

CO: You are then financing the work of two full-time bibliotherapists in northeast England, is that right?

AC: Yeah. Not full time. I think they'll be working on sort of in three quarters time. And that's the plan.

CO: It sounds like a good job. What are the qualifications for this kind of coach?

AC: Well, luckily, I don't have to appoint them because I made this offer at a conference. I was speaking at a conference about health inequality. And at that conference, there were medics and there were people from Public Health England and there were people from local authorities. And so I threw out this challenge that we've got a group of all those people who are very, very enthusiastic at the conference. So they know much more about social prescribing than I do and about mental health and physical health than I do. And just about how we might work this. So I'm glad I don't have that role because I think there are going to be some fantastic people applying.

CO: I'm just wondering what the qualifications are because I think a lot of people, including myself, might want to have this kind of a job. It sounds like you get to do what you like best with books?

AC: You do have to be a good listener -- I think you have to be. And I certainly don't want somebody who thinks that it's a great worthy scheme to bring the classics to the masses because we start off where people are wand hen we start off with them telling us what they really need from the book and what will give them a good with a book. And if it's escapist romance, that's absolutely fine or if it's short bits of poetry that's brilliant, too. Or if it's a cracking pacey thriller that just carries you along and so that for a few pages you can forget your problems, that's wonderful. And the most important thing about this is that it will be properly evaluated by academics in two of our local universities. So we can find out, A, if it works or if we're just imagining that this is a good plan. And, B, what works best, whether it's working with parents who want to read to their families or whether it's working in groups or whether it's working with an individual. We will find out what works best at the end of the pilot year. And if it does work, then we hope, roll it out more widely.

CO: How will you know it has succeeded?

AC: Well, partly, I think they will be hard quantitative data. So how many times is that person going back to see their doctor asking for more pain meds or feeling more isolated? But I'm hoping that it'll be more qualitative too so that the researchers will talk to individuals and find out how they're feeling and whether joining a reading group has made them feel less lonely. If reading a book has managed to take the matter to themselves in a way for their problems for a little while.

CO: So you're hoping that they don't ask for more pills, but ask for more books.

AC: Wouldn't that be wonderful?

CO: Well, I wish you success with this idea Ann. And I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

AC: It's been lovely talking to you Carol. Thanks very much indeed.

CH: Ann Cleeves is the author of the Vera Stanhope detective novels and a proponent of bibliotherapists, or as she prefers to call them, reading coaches. We reached her in Whitley Bay, England. And for more on this story, visit our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Part 2: California fires latest

California fires latest

Guest: Mike Rieffel

CH: Right now, there is no end in sight for California's Creek fire. The blaze is still zero percent contained. It has forced tens of thousands of residents to abandon their homes. And now those people have to find a place to stay. That's a problem for Mike Rieffel. He lives and works at the Tamarack Motor Lodge about an hour northwest of Fresno. He fled the fire over the weekend and has been staying in a hotel. We reached Mr. Rieffel earlier today in Fresno.

CO: Mike, how are you and your family? How are you doing today?

MIKE RIEFFEL: We're doing okay emotionally. But doing okay. We just found out that our place may still be standing.

CO: Your home at the Tamarack Lodge?

MR: Yes. It might still be standing. We still have a prayer for that. As far as we know, it's got the -- oh, what do you call that powder stuff they put down?

CO: Right.

MR: For the fire...

CO: A retardant of some kind. Yeah.

MR: Yeah the retardant is all over the place, which is perfectly fine. And then we've got -- I just found out from a neighbour who came and helped us, he said that as far as he knows, the last check he had a little bit of go, our place is still standing. One of the very very few that is up there. They've lost a lot of stuff already.

CO: Yeah, because what we've seen of the pictures in that area, the fire, it was intense. You were there on Saturday. When did you find out? When did you figure it was time to get out because the Creek fire coming your way?

MR: So Saturday morning, about 3-3:30 I kept hearing the sirens going up the highway towards Huntington Lake, and I thought maybe somebody wrecked. And after about an hour, I hear the sirens I figure something was going on, stepped outside and smelt smoke.

CO: So it wasn't dawn yet at that point?

MR: It was still dark. I called the sheriff and he said the fire is out of control. And they'll give us a phone call when it's time to leave. By 10:00, they called us right around 10-10:15, you know, you're under evacuation, go. By the time we get the car packed about 15-20 minutes later, the fire trucks were there and said, you have to leave, get out.

CO: What could you see of the fire at that point?

MR: At that point, it was nothing but smoke and ashes. It had apparently went from 500 acres to 30000 within 10 hours or 12 hours.

CO: Had you ever seen anything like this? I mean there have been fires before. But how does this compare with past seasons?

MR: This is the first time ever in my lifetime -- I'm 48 -- that I had to do this. And I never thought I would be doing it.

CO: You mean evacuate.

MR: Yeah evacuate or anything.

CO: How did you figure out what you could take with you in the car?

MR: Oh, the only thing I think I just grabbed -- the first attempt to get the kids some clothes and get the hell out of there.

CO: How old are the kids?

MR: My son is 12 -- and he was there for a weekend visit. And then the girlfriend's daughter, she's 15.

CO: And how were they dealing with this rapid evacuation?

MR: My son is back with his mom, and he's doing fine, he's staying glued to the TV, watching all this while he's doing the school stuff. And the stepdaughter, this is the first time she's ever been through it, so she's stressful and worried.

CO: You also didn't know if you'd ever see your home again, right?

MR: Yeah. We're basically accepting that we might have nothing to go home to.

CO: And the thing is, is that that's not just your home, it's your place of work.

MR: Exactly.

CO: What are you thinking about that?

MR: It's just a scary thought -- not knowing where to go home to.

CO: Where do you think you can stay?

MR: Honestly, right now, we're just trying to figure out how to get from one day to the next. And we got family -- that sibling that comes stay with them, the girlfriend's older daughter -- but they've got a fire going not too far from her house now. So we're just trying to figure out where to go -- it's like the whole place is on fire.

CO: Yeah. This is what they're saying. This is one of the first times they've seen where the fires are everywhere in California.

MR: Yeah, that's what they keep saying on the news. Apparently not a mountainside or a county that does not have a fire in it.

CO: But the hotel you're in now, can you stay there?

MR: No. They said that they're booked up after today for our double beds -- that we need. So I can't stay here. I've got to go find somewhere to live for a day or two at least.

CO: Where is your family going to sleep tonight?

MR: I have no idea. Maybe in car.

CO: So it'll be you and your girlfriend and her daughter then -- would basically have no place to stay tonight?

MR: Yes. I'm hoping I can find a cheaper enough room for at least tonight.

CO: Have they set up any kind of emergency shelters you could use?

MR: They've set them up, but they're so full that it's hard to get to them. From the Red Cross, there's tens of thousands of us that are out of a place.

CO: Good heavens. Is your sense that California was ready for this?

MR: No. No, I don't think they were ready for it at all.

CO: Is it possible to be ready for something like this?

MR: I don't think there is, to be honest with you. It's just Mother Nature doing her thing.

CO: How difficult has this been for you and your family?

MR: I've never experienced anything like this before at all. So it's been really difficult.

CO: You sound like you're holding it together.

MR: Yeah. Trying to. Let's see what happens.

CO: Well, Mike, I'll let you go, I know you want to take care of your family and I hope you do have a place to go back to and you can have a place to stay tonight.

MR: Yeah me too. I just got to pray to God something gives in our favour.

CO: I hope so too. Take care.

MR: Okay. Thank you.

CH: Mike Rieffel does maintenance at the Tamarack Motor Lodge, where he also lives. We reached him in Fresno, California, earlier today. And we check back in with Mr. Rieffel before airtime to see if he had found a place to stay, he told us there had been a cancellation at the hotel and his neighbour had paid for the family to stay one more night.

[Music]

Bob Woodward Interview

CH: At the start of the pandemic, Donald Trump told the public that COVID-19, wasn't a big deal. It'll disappear with the warm weather, he said. He also claimed that 99 percent of cases are totally harmless. But we now know the U.S. president was singing a very different tune in private, specifically to veteran journalist Bob Woodward, whose new book is titled Rage. Mr. Woodward recorded their telephone chats and he reveals the president not only knew the virus was deadly, he purposefully downplayed the risk.

DONALD TRUMP: Now it's turning out as not just old people, Bob. But just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just old...

BOB WOODWARD: Yeah. Exactly.

DONALD TRUMP: ...old people, there's plenty of young people. [Cross talking]

BOB WOODWARD: Give me a moment of talking to somebody going through this with Fauci or somebody who kind of -- it caused a pivot in your mind, because it's clear just from what's in on the public record that you went through a pivot on this to, "Oh my God, the gravity is almost inexplicable and unexplainable."

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think, Bob, really, to be honest here...

BOB WOODWARD: Sure I want you.

DONALD TRUMP: ...I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic.

CH: Soon after that tape was released, reporters got to ask White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany about it. Here's NBC's Geoff Bennet.

GEOFF BENNET: Dr. Fauci is also apparently on the record, saying of President Trump that his attention span is like a minus number and his sole purpose is to get re-elected, that's according to veteran journalist Bob Woodward. I think the bottom line here is that the president, by his own admission in private, on the record, acknowledged the depth of this crisis and yet told the American people something very different. How is that at its core, not an abject betrayal of the public trust?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY: The president has always been clear eyed with the American people. He was always clear eyed about the lives we could lose. And with regard to Dr. Fauci, you're referring to, a quote, he allegedly told Bob Woodward, and I can give you quotes that we can all play on loop. Dr. Fauci saying this -- I can just tell you the president, the first and only time I went and said you need to do mitigation strongly, the response was, yes, we will do it. There's a long litany of praise from Dr. Fuaci and you're referencing something he allegedly told Bob Woodward.

GEOFF BENNET: It's on tape. It's on tape Kayleigh.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY: I'm reading to you what Dr. Fauci has said very publicly for all to see. And we can all play those video clips. I can get them in your inbox.

CH: NBC's Geoff Bennett in an exchange with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany today.

[Music]

Scholars Strike

Guest: Beverly Bain

CH: This week, classes start at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus. That's where Beverly Bain teaches. But the lecturer in gender and women's studies is putting her teaching and administrative duties on hold for today and tomorrow. Ms. Bain is taking part in what's being called a scholar's strike to protest police brutality in Canada and the United States. She helped organize the event here in Canada, inspired by a professor in the US. We reached Beverly Bain in Toronto.

CO: Ms. Bain, what have you been doing today instead of teaching your regular classes?

BEVERLY BAIN: We have organized a series of teach-ins as part of the scholar's strike Canada, which is to protest the ongoing violence against Blacks and Indigenous people in racialized people by police. It started, you know, in the US, with the scholars there prior to that, the WNBA and the NBA, based on the shootings of people like Jacob and Breonna Taylor and numerous others who have died at the hands of police. And we here in Canada during the pandemic have witnessed the killing of D'Andre, the killing of Ejaz Chaudhry, Chantel Moore -- an Indigenous woman. The lack of accountability into the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet So we have seen all of this happen. And the scholars who are also part of these communities, who have students who are part of these communities, who teach in the classroom in terms of teaching on issues of policing and the state. We cannot continue to pretend that these issues are separate.

CO: What message do you want to send to university campuses in Canada about this?

BB: A key thing to all universities that making statements are not enough. Making statements about anti-racism policies and practices are not enough because actually they're really performative. They haven't done anything. And, you know, we want the institution to pay attention to the fact that in terms of scholars, the majority of them who are part-time and contract are racialize faculty. We want our university to pay more attention to hiring more Black and Indigenous scholars who are full time. We also want our university to remove campus police which is, again, the extension of the carceral state. Our students do not need to be criminalized, nor do our professors. So these are some of the things that we are sending a message to our universities.

CO: Can I ask you about the campus police? Because there are reasons to have campus police from the point of view of protecting students. I mean, women who are on the campus who can be harassed or attacked. Police were supposed to be there to protect people. Why do you think that you should not have campus police?

BB: Well, I mean, the way in which policing operates now, Carol, is actually quite, it's really intent on criminalizing students. I mean, one of the things, one of the issues, that we are having is that police tend to be the ones that are called in situations where a student goes to seek help at the counselling office because they may be having some emotional issues and they are feeling threatened by those emotional issues. And then the campus police are called and they put them in handcuffs and they take them to the hospital and students are criminalized and they're further traumatized. And in fact, that seemed to be more for students -- it's much more of an issue of students actually being put more at risk with campus police than actually finding campus police as a source of support.

CO: The other demands you were making, not just for campus police to be removed, but to address the underrepresentation of Black and Indigenous faculty on campuses. Universities will have argued that they support this idea that they are against any kind of anti-Black racism and would like to see larger representation. Do you think that they are not being sincere when they make those claims?

BB: Well, I mean, it's one thing to say that you will hire someone, but you have to be able to retain that faculty. In order to do that, you have to ensure that you're willing to support that faculty. Our universities as institutions are not yet quite open to knowledges that are not Eurocentric. We're still struggling with ensuring that in all the work that we do, the kind of work we do also have to be engaged in a particular kind of way. And also in terms of we can't be teaching about social justice while at the same time, you know, we are actually engaging in much more of a corporatized, capitalized institutional framework.

CO: How are the students responding to your strike?

BB: Oh, they are very supportive. I need to tell you that we had about 3,500 people listening on our first teach-in -- we just finished our second teach-in -- and we have had 3,500 people on those teach-ins, which is a clear indication that this is something that people want. They're seeing on the television screens every day more Black protesters being beaten and arrested by police officers for just, you know, protesting peacefully against anti-police violence. So people are seeing this and they're witnessing that. There's also protests here in Toronto and across the country that doesn't always get covered in the news, but it's actually happening. And people are seeing that during these situations that people, Black and racialized people, are the ones who face the brunt of the violence. And our scholars and all students are saying this is also us who's experiencing this and this needs to end. And the only way it can end is for us to all, you know, become involved in the change work.

CO: We're going to leave it there Ms. Bain and I appreciate hearing all of this from you. Thank you.

BB: Thank you.

CH: That was University of Toronto lecturer Beverly Bain in Toronto. In a statement to As It Happens, her university said it is strongly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and to confronting and eradicating ant-Black racism. And in response to Ms. Bain's comments about campus police, U of T said, quote, "Students who seek help are cared for by medical professionals trained to work with individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Hospitalizations are relatively rare and most are voluntary. Campus police become involved only when an individual makes specific statements that indicate they have an intention to do harm, such as suicide and are unwilling to go to the hospital. In such cases, we have a responsibility to keep individuals safe.".

[Music]

Candy Man

[SONG: The Candy Man]

CH: Sammy Davis Jr. with his 1972 hit "The Candy Man" about a guy who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew, then cover it with chocolate and a miracle or two. Well, which is it? One or two miracles. And how do you eat that? Frankly, the candy man's whole weird deal falls apart under scrutiny. Now, I'm not saying that's true of David Klein, founder of the fancy jelly bean company Jelly Belly, who calls himself "Candy Man." But the closer you look at the packaging of his big contest, the more artificial ingredients you find. Mr. Klein is staging a contest inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And here's how he and his partner Stephanie explain it in a short video. And when he says hiding these, he's holding up a golden necklace.

STEPHANIE: Hi, everybody. I'm Stephanie.

DAVID KLEIN: I'm the candy man.

STEPHANIE: He invented Jelly Belly jelly beans, and he has the hat to prove it. And now we are doing the golden ticket dot.com treasure hunt. What is the treasure hunt about, David?

DAVID KLEIN: It's going to be a treasure hunt across the whole entire country where we're going to be hiding, these right here. We've already hidden quite a few of them. We're going to be hiding them in every state across the country.

STEPHANIE: And at some point, after you've gotten them in every state and had families go out looking for them with the possibility of winning five thousand dollars, what are you going to do? You're going to have a treasure hunt for what?

DAVID KLEIN: We're going to have the ultimate treasure hunt where the winner will be receiving a key. A key to our one of our candy factories.

STEPHANIE: That's exciting.

DAVID KLEIN: That's exciting.

CH: That's exciting. As the Candy Man song says, Mr. Klein is really taking tomorrow and dipping it in a dream. But there are a few sour notes in the fine print. For one thing, the Jelly Belly Company has issued a statement suggesting David Klein invented the name Jelly Belly, not the candy. For another, so far, no media outlet has been able to find Mr. Klein's candy factory. But assuming it is there, the candy man himself says the winner will have to pay the taxes on it and hire staff. So, you know, you'll have to run an actual candy factory. And that's not all chocolate sunrise's sprinkled with dew. Could be, the whole thing is fun and legit, but it'll be a while before we know whether this turns out like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or Willy Wrongka and the Chocolate Fiction-ry.

[Music]

Treasure Hunt

CH: Why is it that I must go and leave my trove for all to seek the answers I already know, I've done it tired and now I'm weak. So hear me all and listen good, your effort will be worth the cold if you are brave and in the wood, I give you title to the gold. For a decade those cryptic lines of poetry drove thousands of treasure hunters into the Rocky Mountains in search of a hidden chest filled with a million dollars worth of gold and precious stones. The poem was written by Forrest Fenn and published in his 2010 autobiography The Thrill of the Chase. The wealthy antiquities collector died on Monday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 89. Some did find Forrest Fenn's chase thrilling. And others claimed his hidden chest was a hoax. And officials eventually asked him to call off the hunt after people died searching for the treasure. But Mr. Fenn never wavered. And in June, he announced that his treasure had finally been found by a man who wished to remain anonymous. From our archives, here's Forrest Fenn speaking with Carol in 2016 about his treasure and whether he felt responsible for the people who went missing looking for it.

FORREST FENN: It has 265 American eagles and double eagle coins, and it has hundreds of gold nuggets, some as large as chicken egg. And it has 260 some rubies and diamonds and eight emeralds and two Ceylon sapphire and Colombian gold and jade figures. It's a wonderful treasure chest full of good things.

CO: Do you feel any guilt for encouraging people to venture out into remote, dangerous areas looking for your treasure?

FORREST FENN: Well, anytime somebody gets off their couch and gets out of the game room and away from the texting machines and go into the Rocky Mountains looking for my treasure, I'm tickled to death with that. It's sad when somebody gets lost. But I've said over and over, you should not look for my treasure in the wintertime. You know that the winter mountains are not your friend, when there's snow and ice on the ground there. I don't know what else I can say.

CO: Well, you know, I'm sure you've heard this since you put that treasure there, there have been other people with not enough experience, (who) perhaps were out. A woman got caught in the dark when she was out looking for it. There have been others who had to be rescued by rangers and some people damaged some sensitive archeological sites looking for your treasure. Does any of that give you pause?

FORREST FENN: What you say is true, but how many people have been lost in the mouotains hunting for deer and elk over the years? I mean, if someone gets lost in the mountains while they're hunting, does that mean we should stop hunting?

CO: So are you going to call off the treasure hunt?

FORREST FENN: No, I will not call off the treasure hunt. 65,000 have had a wonderful experiences in the mountains looking for my treasure. And I. get one hundred and twenty emails a day from people that thank me for hiding that treasure. And I got an email from one man who said he had not spoken to his brother for 17 years, but he called his brother and now they're out looking for the treasure. I mean, that's very rewarding to me. Occasionally someone gets lost, and I'm very sad about that. It's unfortunate. But you should not be looking for my treasure in the wintertime.

CH: From 2016, that was Carol speaking with Forest Fenn about a treasure hunt he started in 2010. The wealthy antiquities collector died on Monday. He was 89.

[Music]

Part 3: New York dentist says tooth fractures are on the rise during the pandemic

U.S. Election: Battle Creek

Guest: Damon Brown

CH: Joe Biden needs Michigan. The Democrats lost their former stronghold to Donald Trump by the narrowest of margins in 2016. And the party desperately wants it back. So it's no wonder the Democratic contender was in Warren, Michigan, today with this message for voters.

JOE BIDEN: Getting a good job in 2020 right here in America, shouldn't be a lottery. It should be an absolute expectation for everyone. I don't accept the defeatist view that the forces of automation and globalization mean we can't keep good paying union jobs here in America and create more of them. I don't buy for one second that the vitality of American manufacturing is a thing of the past. We have the most qualified workers in the world. American manufacturing -- is the old expression you heard your grandpop say or your grandmother was the arsenal of democracy in World War Two. Well, guess what? It's going to be part of the engine of American prosperity now in 2021. We're going to make it happen with American grit, American determination and American union workers.

CH: Joe Biden speaking in Warren, Michigan, earlier today. To win the state, he'll have to convince people to get out to vote. But not everyone is sure it'll make a difference. Damon Brown runs a non-profit organization in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was once known as Cereal Town because it was home to both Kellogg's and Post. But manufacturing jobs are a lot more scarce there these days. And since the pandemic hit, people's lives, especially in Black and minority communities, have gotten a lot harder. We reached Damon Brown in Battle Creek.

CO: Damon, I know you're going to be busy later on today. You're going to be handing out food and things that people need that they're struggling to get by. How much demand is there for what you're doing right now?

DAMON BROWN: Oh, wow. Yes. I mean, there's a big demand we're seeing here in our community. Right now, we are targeting two specific neighbourhoods -- that is the Washington Heights neighbourhood and also Post Franklin neighbourhood. Both of these neighbourhoods, you know, are the most impoverished. Washington Heights is 27 percent below the federal poverty level, according to Alice Report. And so it was sent a great need. We started this program first -- distribution -- was back on April 17th. We did about 40 families at first. Now we're at 300 families a week.

CO: So this is COVID related, right. I mean, there was poverty before but what you're dealing with is what's happened with the pandemic.

DB: Well, I will say that the pandemic snatched the covers off of it, if you will. And so COVID, when that hit, that's what started us to do the full distribution. Other things had just been uncovered as we've been doing the food distribution, a lot of other disparities. So we've been trying to address those as well.

CO: And what's the assessment of people of President Trump's handling then of the pandemic?

DB: I mean, you know, those are definitely mixed feelings. I think that, you know, most people are uncomfortable with a lot of the rhetoric, a lot of the division that seems to be spoke. You know, that it would seem like that this would be a time of togetherness, you know, coming together to solve these problems instead of division. And you know that what I'm hearing a lot.

CO: But when you speak about division, of course, it's not just around the pandemic -- maybe the pandemic kind of brought it out. But the big issues that we're following from the United States is a very divided country and issues around the protests about the police and how they are handling communities. The protests, the clashes. Does that resonate with people?

DB: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know you know, especially at a time like this, you know, where we should be together. You know, with a pandemic, there is no race, colour, creed, you know, sex, it doesn't matter what you are or age. I mean, it doesn't matter. You know, COVID-19 does not and did not discriminate. When you talk about the George Floyd situation, those type of things have been happening for years, for centuries and has been happening in different ways. You know, those, you know, trying to divide this country it's just not going to work because, you know, you have different levels of society. Working class people, you know, we're working together. Black and White are, you know, are working together. It is ignorant people out here that are still divided. Again, it's just not going to work. It hasn't worked. I believe that, you know, the times that, you know, we were once are over with. And there's a new energy that's going on.

CO: When you say it hasn't worked, you mean the pitch that President Trump is now making about how he's going to keep America safe. He's going to have his law and order agenda. You're saying that's not going to resonate. That's not going to get him elected?

DB: No. I'm saying, trying to divide this country -- saying things that's going to get people to go against each other based on skin colour or financial status, gender, sex, using those things to divide this country, to get re-elected for any president, Donald Trump or anyone else, is not want to work. We all have our opinions about different presidents, and you know, how powerful or not powerful a president is. How much change a president really can make. And let me say this one thing that I think is very very important that I stay in the Washington Heights neighbourhood, predominately African-American -- 27 percent below the federal poverty level. I am 42 years old and I don't know how many presidents that I've seen under that 42 years, but my neighbourhood continues to look the same under each one of those presidents.

CO: So you don't think it would make any difference if Joe Biden becomes the president?

DB: No, I think that takes us and the community -- the people. The president, you know, they work for us. They work for the people or they are supposed to. But it takes the people to get them in and take the people to get them out. And so it's going to take the people to get change. And we all know that the president only signs things into law. And, you know, the real change happens at other levels.

CO: What's at stake then in November as far as this federal election, this election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in particular? What's at stake for your community?

DB: I think what's at stake is what has always been at stake. And I think that we have to self-sustain. We can't keep focusing on someone saving us. You know, we felt like Obama was want to save us because he was an African-American man. But at the end of the day, my neighbourhood still looks the same under President Obama. And so, again, it has shown me that we have to save ourselves, we have to save our own community.

CO: So who are you going to vote for?

DB: I'm not going to say just yet, I'm still up in the air about that. We'll see come November.

CO: Could you possibly vote for Donald Trump?

DB: I'm not going to say either way. I'm going to vote for who I feel is the best for my community, for my kids, for my grandson and for the elder. You know there may be nobody.

CO: Damon, I wish you success. I know you've got lots of work to do this afternoon, and I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

DB: Yeah, bye bye.

CH: Damon Brown runs a non-profit organization called Rise helping at-risk youth. He was in Battle Creek, Michigan.

[Music]

Percy Schmeiser

CH: If you went through decades worth of As It Happens guests to find the one Christopher Walken would play in a Hollywood movie, Percy Schmeiser may not be at the top of your list. Mr. Schmeiser is a Saskatchewan farmer. He got into a fight about canola seeds in the late 1990s. The agriculture giant Monsanto accused Mr. Schmeiser of planting genetically modified seeds that it had a patent on. Mr. Schmeiser insisted that he always just use seeds he'd kept from the previous year's crop. The action that ensued wasn't exactly The Deer Hunter or Pulp Fiction. Nevertheless, it is the story in the new film Percy, which is coming out in a few weeks with Christopher Walken in the title role. Here's the original Percy -- Percy Schmeiser speaking with, As It Happens, host Mary Lou Finlay in 1998.

PERCY SCHMEISER: I had never had nothing to do with Monsanto. No contact with them and have never used Monsanto seed.

MARY LOU FINLAY: Well, why would they think that you have?

PERCY SCHMEISER: The reason we believe is that some of the samples they found in the road ditch along my rideaway or the adjacent to my land probably or did contain some canola that was roundup ready. Now, this could come from many, many sources, and I suspect it could have been from cross pollination, blown off grain trucks that go by my land hauling grain to the elevator or to wherever.

MARY LOU FINLAY: Now, how are you going to defend yourself against the suit?

PERCY SCHMEISER: Well, what I'm saying is that the Monsanto or the roundup ready people basically have contaminated and polluted my land. I was always raising canola or seeding canola for my own seed that grew from the year previously. And now that seed has been contaminated and polluted by which we suspect is roundup ready canola.

MARY LOU FINLAY: What are they protecting? What are the rules here?

PERCY SCHMEISER: The rules are there that if a farmer wants to grow roundup ready canola, they must sign what they call a technology users agreement, which costs 15 dollars an acre. They must buy the seed from a special seed grower. Now, after the farmer harvests the crop, he must sell all the crop that he has grown from that seed and he cannot keep any for himself. He must again then buy the seed back again next spring and also again pay the technology charge. Now, this is a very, very serious concern to many many farmers is because it has always been a tradition that farmers used their own seed and then ever so often, maybe obtain new seed. So it really goes against the grain of farmers that they cannot use their own seed to plant again next spring.

CH: From our archives, that was the Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser answering questions from our former host, Mary Lou Finlay in 1998. A film about Mr. Schmeiser's fight with Monsanto is due out next month.

[Music]

Cracked teeth dentist

Guest: Tammy Chen

CH: Tammy Chen has seen more tooth fractures in the last six weeks than in the previous six years. The Manhattan prosthodontist the dentist wrote about her distressing dental discovery in a piece for The New York Times published yesterday. And in that piece, Dr. Chen explains how she thinks the pandemic is damaging our oral health. We've reached her in Manhattan.

CO: Dr. Chen at what point during this pandemic did you notice that you were getting different types of calls or more types of calls in certain ways than you were getting from before?

TAMMY CHEN: So in New York City, we shut down about middle of March. And I would say by the end of March, I was already getting a definitive increase of "my jaws ready and my teeth are hurting, I broke a tooth from the clenching and grinding."

CO: And you've said in your piece that you've seen in the last six weeks more tooth fractures than in the previous six years?

TC: That is correct. Unfortunately, it's been a very stressful time. You know, New York is still under a lot of uncertainty and patients are just very stressed out. When I watch them, when they're speaking to me, they're just clenching and grinding while talking. And I mentioned to them your clenching right now. And patients will tell me, I just can't stop, I don't know where my kids are going to be for school, I don't know what's going to happen with my job. And it's the definite uptick of what we're seeing in that clenching and grinding leading to fractures. I unfortunately have not come to work one day and not seen a fracture.

CO: Tell us a bit about what you're seeing. And so you're seeing the clenching, the grinding, that people have jaw pain. Just describe some of the things you're seeing in their mouths.

TC: So then we're seeing an increase of the inflammation in the gums because you're putting so much pressure on the teeth. It's in return. In return, bruises on the bone and the gums. Our body is responding to that added pressure that's not used to having. I'm definitely getting patients telling me that they're experiencing a lot more headaches, more migraines. I'm having more patients on some of the migrant meds and some of the anti-anxiety meds to help with, you know, some of their stress and anxiety, which in return can cause a dry mouth and can cause other problems in the mouth as well. So it is, unfortunately, just an uncertain time and people are are showing it in so many different ways.

CO: The dental association here in Canada has said that they haven't seen a relationship, a definitive relationship, between teeth grinding and stress. What would you say to that?

TC: I would say that that's going to be a difficult thing for anybody to ever prove that there's a definitive relationship. But I think that from anecdotal among my colleagues and from my patients, what we're seeing as people are stressed out and that they are grinding. You know, to pinpoint why is your joaw moving? Is it definitively because you're stressed out of A, B and C? Or is it because you're tired from X, Y and Z that unfortunately our bodies are so multifactorial that you can't pinpoint it to any one thing -- and that is something that we do definitively stress in our offices. Our mouth is not an isolated part of this body. Everything ties in together.

CO: Dentists in Canada with whom we've spoken, they say they haven't seen an increase in fractured teeth. But we know that Manhattan and New York has been particularly hard hit by this pandemic. Why do you think that perhaps you are seeing more fractures where you are?

TC: You know, that's hard for me to say. I will say I have received numerous emails from a couple Canadian dentists that are actually quoting the same things. I think it is just geographically which areas just got hit the harder part. You know, I have some colleagues that maybe practice in a little more rural areas and in the middle of the country. And they're not seeing quite the same level of trauma that I'm seeing versus among my colleagues in New York. And furthermore, in New York, we were not prepared to be a city that works at home. Ergonomics has a huge toll on our body. You're hunched over kind of into that C shape, you're putting an extra strain because your head is tilted forward and the weight of that head is extra weight for those muscles to then pull. And at the end of the night, when you lay down and go to sleep, those muscles are tired and they will twitch and cause you to clench and grind.

CO: Yikes. Okay. But you're -- I don't say just a dentist -- you have one part of the anatomy that you're dealing with, but sounds like you need a team to help people through this. So the teeth fractures are a symptom, not a cause. So how can you help them?

TC: So there are a couple of ways. There are some of the home remedies, such as just paying attention to your ergonomics when you are at home, such as your shoulders over your hips, your ears over your shoulder. Thinking about, you know, if you are working from home, you tend to be more sedentary than if you're in the office. So set an alarm on your phone every, say, 60 minutes, every 100 minutes, you're going to get up and walk around for five minutes, maybe do 20 jumping jacks and like 10 lunges or whatever it is to kind of just release some of that stress that if you were in an office setting, you would have gone for a walk or for a coffee with your colleague or walked down the aisle to another colleague and asked a question instead of sent an email. On top of that, really trying to be conscious of, you know, your teeth touching during the day. Remember that our teeth should not touch unless if you're actively chewing food.

CO: Some dentists will recommend night guards, which...they are expensive. Do you find that people are doing that or can they actually have that as an option?

TC: Absolutely. And I recommended that in the article as well as anything that you can physically have to separate your teeth. I tell my patients all the time, I'd rather you crack a night guard than crack a tooth. I understand that custom-made night guards do tend to be a little more costly. Unfortunately, to have them properly custom made to your mouth so they fit and that you can wear them through the night, sleep properly and not interfere with your airway, your tongue, your breathing, there is some nuances to that that need to be done properly. I would rather something better than nothing. If you have retainers, I've had some people tell me I wear my old football guard and you know, if you can sleep with it, great. It's physical separation that we are looking for because while we are sleeping, we cannot consciously think about that clenching and grinding.

CO: Okay, I am consciously trying to relax my jaw. [Laughter] Maybe it is already helping at least one person. Dr. Chen it's good to talk to you. Thank you.

TC: Thank you so much.

CH: That was New York dentist Tammy Chen. We reached her in Manhattan. And for more on the story, visit our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Back To School

CH: It's been a very very long March break for most students. What was supposed to be a week turned into nearly six months, entirely too much of their time spent at home. But now students across the country are slowly heading back into the classroom with back to school masks and hand sanitizer. It's a very different year. But one thing that probably hasn't changed is this sound. [SONG: Back To School] Newfoundland and Labrador's trio Swinging Bells with their new tune "Back to school." Today, thousands of students across that province headed to class for the first time since March. And even though the province hasn't reported any new cases for four straight days, the trio knows that the first day can be nerve wracking. So they wrote a song to calm the jitters and to dance to with a mask on.

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September 9, 2020 Episode Transcript

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